Mute Left me Speechless (Netflix film)

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Mute, a new film I found on Netflix, left me speechless, and not for the reason you might be thinking. While the atmosphere was great, the story was too weird for my taste. It’s not enough to use Blade Runner aesthetics to bring to life a sci-fi story, it needs some coherence. This film had potential, but things got messy when the script got too weird.

Mute follows the story of the Amish Leo, who is mute due to a childhood accident. He could have it fixed, but he’s an Amish. He lives in Berlin in the future, and his girlfriend is a cocktail waitress. Naadirah is Leo’s love. He almost worships her in a very loving way. So, when she suddenly disappears, he starts a quest to know what happened to her.

SPOILERS: this review has massive spoilers of the movie. Stop here if what you plan is to give the film a go. It didn’t work for me, but this doesn’t mean that it won’t work for you.

Leo doesn’t know much about technology, but that won’t stop him from finding out what happens to her. In the meanwhile, Paul Rudd plays a pshyco doctor who has a daughter. He goes with her around finding weird babysitters. His partner turns out to be a pedophile, and then he starts freaking out. For some reason, this guy is connected to Leo’s girlfriend, but we won’t know how until the end.

Leo tries his best to find what’s going on. Despite his disability, he’s articulate enough and smart to fill in the gaps. The only problem Leo has is being too naive. However, that’s about to change.

While Leo tracks down the steps of his girlfriend, Rudd is trying to make his partner stop his pedophile tendencies. Even if it seems that he will, we soon discover that there’s no way the guy will. By the time we find out that the kid is Leo’s girlfriend’s, we have an entirely new idea about Rudd’s character. Although we might have had some sympathy for him, by the time we know what happened we hate him quite a lot.

And then things get weirder with Rudd’s partner. He cures Leo just to make him apologize. He wants him to say I’m sorry, but Leo kills him instead. Why? Because he wants to save the kid.

This movie is weird, to say the least. It’s slow and irritating, and by the time the end arrives, you aren’t exactly prepared for it. It promises a lot, and yet it falls short. If I have to say what kind of feeling this movie left me, I wouldn’t be able to describe it adequately. The only thing that I liked was Leo. He’s a big fluffy guy too naive for the Berlin of the future. He’s a fluffy unicorn, but he does have the strength to fight back.

Now, is Leo enough for watching the movie? Definitely not! If I had read some reviews about Mute, I would probably have never seen it. But because I like to fish on Netflix, and because I love Blade Runner aesthetics, Mute trapped me. It left me speechless, but not in a good sense.

Sorry Leo, sorry aesthetics, you aren’t enough to save this film. So, if you want to give this a shot, go ahead. But, be advised: it’s bizarre, and at times you’re as lost as Leo. And what happens next is as weird as the entire film.

If you have seen it, let me know what you think 🙂

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Copyright: Images on this post (C) Mute (C) Netflix / Top banner made by dePepi with an official (C) Mute (C) Netflix image / Memes & Gifs (C) by their owners.